Birth and rebirth

When I first submitted my strip to the syndicates, Eve was already pregnant with her twins. She was about 5 months along. During the course of my development period with Universal, it was decided that she would not be pregnant at the launch, but would get pregnant shortly thereafter. The first 9 months of my strip were really fun to write and draw because she was huge, pregnant, uncomfortable and nasty. I decided to have the babies be born on January 2, 2005 because she was due in January, and that was the Sunday that fit her conception timing (and yes, I took the time to figure out when my cartoon characters would have had to get pregnant. Which is probably psychotic). … Moving on!

This is the strip as I submitted it. I thought it was perfect, but it turned out to be another first draft.

1/2/05 first try

As you can see, Eve has blood on her gown from the babies (though I DID make it pink blood to try and make it more friendly). You know she’s giving birth, but it’s not graphic. There are no crowning shots or anything. My editor emailed me and said it was too graphic. I had to get rid of the blood and Eve was showing too much leg. So I photoshopped the blood out and moved Eve’s gown down to cover her more in panels 1 and 4, and resubmitted it. Here’s my second try.

1/2/05

Nope. Still not enough. It was still too graphic. Maybe if it was a daily, but it was a Sunday, so I needed to work on it. Here’s my final try, which was finally approved.

1/2/05

Notice the doctor is completely gone out of the first panel and she’s not showing any leg at all. In the fourth panel you can just barely see the doctor’s head and her thigh is pretty much covered. There was some talk about the umbilical cords, but it was decided that they would be okay as is. The only thing I like better about this strip is the last panel because I made the names bigger and easier to read and so I like the announcement better.

I like the final strip, I just liked the first or even the second one’s better. Who knows. Maybe the syndicate was right on this one– birth squicks some people out, but I think it’s beautiful, and since I followed her pregnancy warts and all, I thought it would be a cheat not to show the birth.

I like both girls’ names, but Maizy Kate is special because she was named for my best friend.

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7 comments

I’m still touched that you named one of the girls after me ~ I don’t care if it’s a cartoon baby; it still counts! 🙂

The first attempt is my favorite because it looks the most-realistic to me & I think you drew it well. However, I like the announcement panel in the 3rd attempt the best because, like you said, the names are bigger & easier to read.

I think UPS could have gone with the 2nd attempt without a problem. There’s nothing there that’s offensive at all (far as I can see). But, to be honest, there were lots of times when I didn’t understand why they ruled one of your potential strips to be unusable for some odd reason or another, so I’m not surprised that I fail to see the problem with this one, too.

I loved that first strip! The moment I saw it, I remembered with great clarity not only my own son’s birth but that of the two women friends I coached. I sat here and stared at the panels for a long while, thinking “How on earth did she capture ALL of that — all of the intensity and excitement and exhaustion and pain of that moment — in just these few images?” And then it turns out that is exactly what they made you erase! I know our society has “ickiness problems with birth” but I think it’s a problem with our SOCIETY, not with you. They could have faced it with your first strip, in a healthy and wonderful way, and begun to HEAL from it. It’s too bad the authorities felt they had to protect people’s right to be defiantly ignorant. But good on you!!!

I never got to know what it was like to give birth naturally. I got pregnant in high school and I had to deliver c-section and five years later when I had my daughter Kaidis I had to do it again. “Baby Blues” must have been a different syndicate because the birth of Hammish McPherson was pretty real and therefore appropriately gross. Well, whatever, you are free now Karen. I think you should branch out into t-shirts. that one with the family riding an elephant would make an awesome shirt. Today’s strip was faaaaaaaaaaaaaaabulus, snap!!!! I love watching Manny get his chops busted. I still can’t forgive him for what he put his family through running off to join the mounties or whatever, you don’t wait till you have fifty kids to follow a dream, sorry. But, all’s well that ends well.

It’s amazing how birthing is so censored but showing women in tiny bikinis jumping on a trampoline (ala the Man Show) is okay. one of my friends had posted her birthing pics on Myspace, showed NO crowning or inappropriate bits but Myspace removed the photos due to it being “too graphic” even though she showed less skin then the half naked and bikini clad porn stars who have myspace pages. She fought to have the pics put back in her album but they refused to allow it and threatened to ban her from Myspace if she didn’t comply. In the meantime, our children are allowed to see half naked people all over tv, magazines, and on the internet but they are NOT allowed to be exposed to the miracle of life (births). 😦

Kate, it better count, as I’m not likely to have another baby in my real life!
Dawn, thank you! I totally agree with what you are saying. Birth is lovely and natural and nothing to be afraid of. Leslie, Baby Blues is with a different syndicate. I was with Universal Press and I believe they are with United. Your comment about the shirts sounds like a plant, even though it wasn’t, (your check’s in the mail…) but, as luck would have it, I DO have that exact image on a T-shirt in my shop on my website. I’m glad you enjoyed today’s strip. Yes, I know that Manny put his family through the wringer when he changed jobs, but it was so much fun to write that I don’t regret it. Nicole, you make a really good point. Why is it okay to show one kind of skin and sexuality while totally banning another as gross? Unfortunately, I don’t have an answer.